MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 12, 2006 -- Ecopia BioSciences Inc. (TSX: EIA) is pleased to announce that it has achieved three important milestones strengthening its patent estate. One Canadian patent and two Notices of Allowance, one in the United States and one in Canada, have recently issued for ECO-4601, Ecopia's lead anticancer drug candidate.